Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/19/2008 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Pg

There aren't a lot of choices in a bee's life: a bee attends a few days of school, graduates from college, and chooses a job in the hive that he'll labor at for the rest of his life. Barry (Jerry Seinfeld) is different from his best friend Adam (Matthew Broderick) and all the other bees: he wants to see the world outside the hive and can't begin to contemplate doing the same job for his entire life. Naturally, the life of the "pollen jock" bees appeals to Barry because it's the only job that takes a bee outside the hive and into the larger human world. Once outside the hive, Barry breaks the most sacred bee law and speaks to a human named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger) in order to thank her for saving his life. A relationship quickly blossoms and leads Barry to the discovery that humans are stealing honey from the bees and selling it for their own profit. Vowing to hurt the humans the one place they'll feel it, Barry brings a legal suit against the honey industry and the courtroom drama begins. There are some hysterical moments in the film, as one would expect from a Seinfeld production, and an abundance of one-liners, double-meanings, slapstick humor, and innuendo-laden dialogue that will keep adults guffawing throughout the show. Still, the whole concept of seeing the life of a common pest through non-human eyes is getting repetitive thanks to films like Ratatouille, Flushed Away, Open Season, and Over the Hedge. It should be noted, though, that this first foray into animation by Jerry Seinfeld was four years in production due to its collaborative nature, so its theme may actually have well predated all of the aforementioned films. Children ages 5 and older will love the bees' silly antics, though many of the jokes will go right over their heads and parents should be cautioned about some mildly suggestive humor. More than just a comical film about the life of one very different honeybee, Bee Movie is a social commentary that pokes fun at human behavior while stressing the importance of doing even the most menial job well and championing the power of working together toward a common goal. There's even a lesson to be learned from the bees about controlling one's temper. --Tami Horiuchi

We just saw the film yesterday and although it is technically a well-made film and the story and jokes are quite okay and nice, we were totally put off by the way nature and especially bees were presented. We think that a film for kids should also try to teach them something about the beautiful nature around them and not spawn false ideas about it that will stick forever. Other animal animation film crews took care first to learn something about the animals (movements, social activities, capacities) and then teach it to their young audience. Of course it is okay to turn a hive into a fabric, every child will see the exaggeration here. But neither are there male/female families in a hive, nor can bees fly 10 km above the ground alongside a plane with 600 km/h nor do flowers die because they are not pollinated nor will random pollen be any good for other kinds of flowers. None of these really wrong things about bees was necessary for the film, the whole story would have been as fun with the correct knowledge about bees. We're disappointed that DreamWorks didn't make the efforts to produce a more realistic film that entertains and teaches children at the same time.

Cute movie. My kids 2 and 3 1/2 really enjoyed. Amazon always does a great job getting our items to us quickly. Can't say enough good things about them!

Quite a cute picture for all ages, the quality of animation is excellent, the story is sweet and funny. Well worth watching for any age.

This is a very cute movie. My daughter loved it. She would watch it every night before bedtime.

This is a cute movie there are a few things in there for the grown-ups.
My son who is 6 loves this movie and has watched it many times. There is just enough things in there for adults that I don't mind seeing over and over. The movie has an some environmental things in there but they are not like happy feet where its the only thing the movie is about and very sad so it is a good movie and the animation is good too.